SPY PICS: New Lotus ‘Envya’ caught breaking down

The 2024 Lotus Type 133 has just been spotted cold-weather testing – and breaking down – in northern Sweden ahead of what should be a 2024 global launch for the all-electric sports sedan.

Based on the same Electric Premium Architecture as the Lotus Eletre SUV, the low-riding battery-powered Type 133 is anticipated to be badged as either as the Lotus Etude or Lotus Envya, with our sources suggesting the latter is the more likely option.

Whatever it ends up being called, the Type 133 will wade into a corner of the market currently dominated by the Porsche Taycan and will therefore need to be especially good if Lotus wants it to be a success, especially in an increasingly SUV-crazed world.

The sight of a not-so-subtly-disguised prototype being taken away on the back of a flat-bed truck isn’t the most promising start, but that’s exactly why manufacturers test and develop their future models in extreme climates – to weed out any reliability and durability issues.

Still, it gave our spy photographer plenty of time to snap some quality pics of the bright yellow and silver development vehicle in direct sunlight, revealing a very similar aesthetic to the Eletre from all angles – with the obvious exception of the fastback sedan body shape.

Up the front you’ll find the same Halloween pumpkin-style front bumper design with split headlights and a corresponding segmented rear lighting signature.

There’s no doubting the Type 133 as a prospective Taycan rival when you see it side-on and note the extended wheelbase, long body and sloping roofline.

Headroom might be a bit tight in the back, but legroom should be enough to rival that of fully fledged limousines, allowing taller passengers to slide down in their seat a bit to make do.

Odds are the Type 133 will use exactly the same drivetrains as its SUV sibling, which should mean maximum outputs of 675kW/985Nm – besting the 560kW/1050Nm figures of the Taycan Turbo S with its two electric motors and 112kWh battery pack.

Zero-100km/h should take less than 3.0 seconds for the top-spec R version, which should also offer a circa-270km/h top speed thanks to a Taycan-style two-speed transmission.

Like the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6 duo, the Type 133’s slipperier sedan body should improve its SUV sister model’s effective driving range, to around 640km.

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